In recent years in the field of sport fishing, much has been done to promote the concept of releasing fish after they have been caught by the angler, rather than killing the fish for food or simply out of carelessness. This concept promotes fishing as a sport and fish as a resource, rather than merely as a source of food for the angler.
However, in order to successfully release a fish without harm, some care must be taken by the fisherman and a number of factors must be taken into consideration. Delayed mortality is often a possibility not readily apparent or measurable, but which can take its toll on the fish population. Delayed mortality occurs when a fish is released and swims away, but dies a few hours or days later due to the injuries received when caught or during handling. Such delayed mortality can be a result of many factors including rough handling of the fish after the catch, harm to the fish by the type of equipment used for the catch, and harm caused by the act of removing the fish from the hook.
Some products have appeared on the market to treat the fish prior to their release to minimize the possibility of disease caused by rough handling, and the use of artificial bait helps to minimize the harmful effect caused by the equipment used, since seldom does the fish actually swallow the artificial bait, instead being hooked in the fleshy or bony portion of the mouth enabling the hook to be easily removed without too great danger of harm to the fish.
However, live bait is often used by fishermen because of its greater fish catching ability. But the use of live bait increases the risk that the fish will swallow the bait. When this happens, removal of the hook from the fish very often will seriously harm the fish, either killing the fish immediately, or greatly increasing the chances that the fish will die soon after he is returned to the water.
One reason that the use of live bait so often produces such results is that the hooks available on the market today usually have a barb near the point to prevent the hook from being easily dislodged, as for example when playing the fish. Thus, removal of the hook becomes difficult, by design, and the result is serious injury to the fish.
Some barbless hooks have appeared on the market, and are even required for use by some fishing laws for some species, but they have not been readily accepted generally, due to the fact that their ability to land a fish after it is hooked is greatly diminished, since the fish can easily dislodge the hook during the "fight".
In the past, a number of fishhooks have been proposed for similar purposes. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 675,853, 2,679,708, 2,996,828, 1,869,293 2,792,664 and 2,710,481 have all proposed barbless fishhooks, but for a variety of reasons all of these prior attempts have met with failure. Usually, these prior hooks were of such design that the portion which was intended to keep the fish hooked, actually prevented the fish from being hooked in the first place. Further, these prior hooks usually lacked the ability to hold the bait in place on the hook.
Thus, a significant need exists for a fishhook which may be used either with artificial bait or live bait and with good fish catching and holding ability, but which may be readily dislodged from the fish without significant injury to the fish in order that the fish may be released. Similarly, a need exists for such a fish-hook which may be easily manufactured, either as a new hook or as a modification to an existing hook.
Accordingly, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a barbless fishhook which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art hooks.
Another object of the invention is to provide a barbless fishhook having a good ability to catch and hold a fish and still permit easy removal of the hook from the fish without harm to the fish.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a barbless fishhook which can be used both with artificial bait or live bait.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improved barbless fishhook which has the ability to hold the bait on the hook.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a barbless fishhook which is "weedless" in use.
A still further object of this invention is to provide an improved barbless fishhook which can be easily manufactured without significantly increased cost.
These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following description and drawings when taken together with the accompanying claims.